This invention relates to construction of mounting an air blower on a refrigerator, and more particularly is concerned with economizing in electricity costs spent for operation of the refrigerator.
Heretofore, there have been two different concepts on construction of mounting an air blower on the refrigerator of the type in which cooled air is forcedly circulated. The first concept is to mount an air blower itself in the refrigerator, whereas the other concept is the method wherein a driving motor portion of an air blower is provided outside of the refrigerator and only the fan is mounted in the refrigerator.
These two concepts have had both advantages and shortcomings, respectively. In other words, according to the former concept, quantity of using electricity is increased because even the heat generating portion of the air blower, i.e., the driving motor is mounted in the refrigerator. This is, the heat generated by the driving motor is a reverse action against the cooling of the interior of the refrigerator.
Additionally, if water droplets are attached to the coils or the like of the driving motor portion, then such a condition may serve as the cause of fire. On the other hand, according to the latter concept, the driving motor of the air blower is mounted outside of the refrigerator and only the fan is mounted in the refrigerator and hence the shortcomings inherent to the former method may be obviated. However, the latter has the following defects.
1. Since the driving motor portion is located outside of the refrigerator, there occur necessities for electrical insulation, protection for strength, and for protecting the driving motor portion from insects. In other words, access may be made to the driving motor portion in transit of the refrigerator. Therefore, needless to say there is necessity for taking measures for such access. Furthermore, in case said driving motor portion is directly urged against a wall or the like, said portion may hit against the wall most hard. As the result, there may frequently occur bent or misaligned driving shaft of said driving motor.
2. Since the driving shaft is needed to be increased in length, it is possible that the fan of the air blower be rotated eccentrically to a great extent when said fan is rotated.
3. In the case of mass production, it is difficult to constantly align the axis of the driving shaft with the center of a mouth ring of the air blower mounted inside of the refrigerator.
4. In addition to the above, there may occur necessities for studying various problems on construction of supporting means for the driving motor and the like.
The present invention is intended to obviate the shortcomings described above. According to the present invention, a recessed portion is provided in an outer plate at the upper portion of a cooler, a thin wall portion is locally provided in an insulated wall, a heat generating portion of a fan motor is housed in said recessed portion, a shaft of said fan motor is penetrated through said thin wall portion, a fan is mounted at the forward end of said shaft in such a manner that air intake is made from the side of said thin wall portion to circulate cooled air through the refrigerator, whereby it is intended to attain decrease in heat load by virtue of heat generating performed by the motor provided outside of the generator, extension of the service life of the motor and restriction of heat transmission through the insulated wall which is resulted from the adoption of a thin wall.